Australian Football

Match Report

The second installment of Friday Night Mayhem for Round 7 takes us to the outer west, up the Port Road and into the Maughan Thiem Kia Oval in Woodville for its first night match for points as the Eagles clashed with the Crows. The reigning premiers hammered the Crows hard over their two match-ups last season with a poins deficit of almost 25 goals. Starting in Round 3, the Eagles trounced the Crows by 83 points, then by 65 points in Round 17. This time around would have a very different Crows side on the park unlike last season, with a swag of AFL-listed talent on show. Both sides came out with wins last weekend, with the Eagles winning the battle of Port Road against the Magpies at Alberton by 26 points, while the Crows belted the Bloods by nine goals at Richmond. 

The Eagles had most of the possession early but missed some chances to inflict early damage. The Crows answered during a 14-minute period to kick four goals before the Eagles got their second, at the first change it was Adelaide by three goals with a scoreline of 5.3 to 2.3. It was the Crows' turn to have some goal scoring issues themselves in the second quarter, spraying wide a multitude of chances. The gap would be widened by the long break, but not by much as the Crows lead stretched to 23 points, having scored 3.7 to 3.2. The Eagles turned up the heat in the third quarter, reeling Adelaide back to take over the lead going into the final change. The home side bagging six goals without a blemish to Adelaide's 2.2, a one-point lead to the premiers at three quarter-time. Unfortunately for the Woodville crowd, the Eagles were unable to maintain that rage in the final term. They seemed to use all their fuel up in that third quarter and would manage only two behinds in the last quarter as the Crows kicked 5.4 on their way to a 33-point triumph. 

The Crows will surely promote Reilly O'Brien to AFL duties after this, racking up 37 disposals, 11 marks and 13 clearances as best on ground for Adelaide. Joseph Sinor was the Eagles' standout, with 19 disposals and 11 tackles.